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Andrei Lankov

Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul.

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Andrei Lankov

Welcome signs of change

By Andrei Lankov The present author has to start with an admission: for the last two decades I have been highly sceptical every time the international media talks of imminent reform within North Korea. I was not merely sceptical ― in many cases I enjoyed mocking those who prophesied that in the near future North Korea would finally do the right thing and become a mini-version of economically thriving China. There has been no shortage of such predictions over the past 25 years but my scepticism has yet to let me down so far. However, this time I am not so sure whether I should stick to this well-tested approach. Recent news from Pyongyang seemingly indicates that for the first time the start of a reform process is a real possibility. Many of the changes appear purely symbolic at first glance ― like, for instance, the explicit endorsement of the first American popular music concert in Pyongyang by Kim Jong-un himself. On the same level is his truly unprecedented decision to grant real public prominence to his wife Ri Sol-ju who has been seen next to him quite a few times.

Aug 12, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Women in North Korea

By Andrei Lankov In most post-socialist nations, the collapse of the state socialist system had a rather ambiguous impact on the social and economic position of women. Clearly the advent of the market economy brought with it some advantages, especially in those countries where its introduction brought an economic boom. Women often have far more choice, freed from the necessity of queuing for hours to get what they and their families need and they can enjoy the new delights of political and cultural freedom. However, there is also a pretty unsavory downside. Whatever you think of the socialist system, it took gender equality quite seriously and enforced numerous laws and regulations which meant that the special needs of women in the workplace were taken into account. Most of these regulations unfortunately disappeared together with monthly indoctrination sessions, labor mobilizations and other less attractive features of the same system. In all of this though, North Korea is an exception. In spite of all the official rhetoric, North Korea can be seen nowadays as a post-s

Jul 29, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

First 6 months of Kim Jong-un

By Andrei Lankov So, half a year has passed since the “Dear Leader,” “Marshall (posthumously promoted to Generalissimo)” Kim Jong-il departed this world. Now is as good a time as any to try to make some sense of the policies of his son, who has been at the helm of the country ever since. Within those slightly more than six months the first thing that should be noticed is the remarkable smoothness of the power transition. When Kim Jong-il died, his third son’s promotion to heir designate remained incomplete. Technically, at the time Kim Jong-un had not yet been pronounced the successor and was simply one of a dozen or so top North Korean military and political leaders. Under other circumstances, such a situation would clearly be a recipe for instability. However, the transition has gone with remarkable swiftness and without a serious hitch. No major political figure has been demoted or disappeared without a trace; no suspicious signs within the military or the political apparatus have yet come to light. Obviously, North Korean decision makers understand perfectly well, tha

Jul 15, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

How North Koreans live

By Andrei Lankov When we talk about North Korea and its political actions ― missiles, nuclear tests and the like ― we also tend to overlook that North Korea is, above all, a country and hence populated by people who, in spite of all the political turbulence, somehow manage to continue with their normal lives. So, what does a typical North Korean house look like? Where do North Koreans live? In spite of the small size of apartments, North Koreans still prefer them to individual houses: apartment complexes have much better amenities – tap water, flush toilets and the like. However, few North Korean dwellings have their own toilets, and individual showers are almost unheard of. In most cases, people share facilities: in less luxurious apartments, for example, there is one toilet per floor. By modern South Korean standards, North Korean dwellings are small. Flats in the most apartment complexes have only two rooms (plus a kitchen). A flat with three rooms is seen as a rare luxury. The total area of the average Pyongyang apartment never exceeds 30 square meters (larger

Jul 1, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Im Su-kyong ― then, and now

By Andrei Lankov A major scandal recently hit Korean politics. Newly-elected Assemblywoman Lim Su-kyung found herself in the spotlight for going ballistic during a chance encounter with a North Korean refugee. The backbencher of the left-leaning (and moderately nationalist) Democratic United Party described the person as a ``traitor.” Lim soon expressed her regret about the incident and claimed that her remarks had been ``misinterpreted”. Predictably, the conservative press had a field day whilst more left-leaning media habitually cried wolf (by that I mean McCarthyism). But I do not want to get involved with the dispute ― as noisy and dishonest as most of these kinds of things are. I always remember that Lim once made a great contribution in changing the worldview of North Koreans and making many of them more skeptical about their government. This is an interesting paradox since it was likely not her slightest intention ― as the recent scandal has confirmed, Lim herself is not renowned for her critical attitude toward the North Korean family dictatorship. In the s

Jun 17, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

'Normal' North Korea

By Andrei Lankov If you asked me what surprised me the most when I arrived in North Korea for the very first time. I’d say the fact that the place looked normal ― surprisingly so. It was September 1984 when I disembarked from the Soviet Il-62 plane and was soon driven through the streets of Pyongyang, but I did not see what I sort of expected to encounter. Contrary to what is often assumed by Westerners, in the 1970s and 1980s the Soviet public ― including those who were by no means dissenters ― looked at North Korea with a mixture of disdain and amusement. The Soviet Union of the early 1980s was not at all a democratic state, but it was much more permissive than Kim Il-sung’s North Korea. I expected therefore to see a dictatorship and I, sort of subconsciously, thought that North Korea would look like the kind of totalitarian state one sees in dystopian novels or Hollywood movies. It should have impeccably dressed soldiers standing on street corners, equipped with loaded machine guns at the ready. It should be populated by a citizenry that never smiles, that go about

Jun 3, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Lessons from Germany

By Andrei Lankov When talking about countries divided by communist and capitalist forces in the 1940s, two examples usually come to mind ― Korea and Germany. There were other cases of course, including Vietnam and China, but Germany and Korea are perhaps the two most talked about. Indeed, the similarities between the two are obvious: both Korea and Germany were divided by the Soviet Union and the United States. Ostensibly, this was done for military purposes, but provisional lines of division drawn soon solidified into state borders. In Germany, the border existed for 45 years, in South Korea it has lasted 65 and counting. But there are considerable differences between the two situations that should not be ignored. If one looks closer, divided Germany is less similar to divided Korea than it appears on first glance. The two Koreas fought a major war that killed about a million people (the exact figure is yet unknown). The wartime experience made Koreans on both sides more willing to side with their governments. The two German states never fought one another. Bu

May 20, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Uranium or plutonium?

By Andrei Lankov It seems likely that the third North Korean nuclear test will take place soon ― perhaps, in a matter of days or weeks. There are signs of preparation at the test site, and it would fit into a well-established pattern: a test of a long-range rocket is usually followed by a nuclear test. In July 2006, North Korea launched Taepodong-2, the largest of its long-range missiles (it exploded shortly after liftoff), and then tested a nuclear device that October. In 2009, the pattern was repeated. In April, a Taepodong-2 was launched and in May the second nuclear test took place. Perhaps the most interesting question that analysts, spies and scientists will try to answer is what the exact type of device used in the test would be. It makes a big difference whether they test a plutonium device, as they have done twice before, or if this time we will see the first test of a uranium one. There is a major difference between the two. Plutonium occurs naturally only in tiny quantities and hence has to be produced artificially in a nuclear reactor where it is a normal b

May 6, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Post-unification nationalism

By Andrei Lankov North Korea is a deeply nationalistic regime, and its nationalism has deep historical roots. To start with, East Asian communists of the 1920s and 1930s were quite nationalistic. Then, from the 1950s onwards, the North Korean leadership encouraged nationalism as a way to keep some distance from their troublesome patrons in Moscow and Beijing. Finally, with the Communist Bloc crumbling in the early 1990s, Pyongyang’s rulers chose nationalism as the main way to justify their continued reign. One might argue that there is nothing special about this since all countries of East Asia are seriously permeated with ethnic nationalism. Frankly, for a country of such high levels of education and income, South Korea itself is an unusually nationalistic place. South Koreans love to talk about ``minjok” (the nation), often described in terms of race and bloodline, and tend to be quite suspicious of outsiders. But things are changing in the South, slowly but surely. The old Korean nationalism emerged during colonial times in the struggle with the nationalism of Imperial J

Apr 22, 2012By Andrei Lankov
Andrei Lankov

Game changer

By Andrei Lankov On March 16, the North Korean government announced that it would, in mid-April, conduct what it described as the launch of a satellite. The world was not impressed. This decision was, after all, made in open defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions which prohibit the North from conducting tests implying the use of ballistic missile technology. The strength of international opinion is notable. Even China, usually inclined to overlook North Korean antics, has found remarkably harsh words to describe North Koreans stated plans. Nonetheless, it is all but certain that North Korea will proceed with the launch. In internal propaganda, much has been made of the plan, and the North Korean state has characterized international reaction as unreasonable in the sense that it attempts to stop North Korea’s peaceful space exploration. There is pretty much nothing the international community can do about North Korea’s missile plans. Sanctions have yet to stop North Korea from undertaking nuclear and missile tests. It appears that the sticks are not sharp enough an

Apr 8, 2012By Andrei Lankov
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